August 21, 2009

G121: Yankees 20, Red Sox 11

What happened in the 2004 ALCS will never be deleted from every mainframe in the Yankees' universe. Not even a World Series title this season completely will erase those painful Red Sox memories that will haunt multiple generations.

Yet starting tonight in New England's living room, the Yankees can extract a wee bit of revenge by burying their blood rivals in the AL East race. Or they can allow the Red Sox to climb off the canvas and turn the final six weeks of the season into a two-way scoreboard-watching orgy.

"We have a chance to do something special against them," manager Joe Girardi said of his club, which leads the Red Sox by 6½ games after Boston blew out the Blue Jays 8-1 last night.

Something "special"? Is the possibility of extending a division lead in the middle of August "special"? Should it happen, is it "special" enough to warrant an ice cream reward?

The Red Sox will emerge from this three-game weekend battle 3.5, 5.5, 7.5 or 9.5 GB the Yankees -- with 38 games remaining in the regular season.

A Boston series sweep -- as the Red Sox have done to the Yankees thrice this season, on April 24-25-26 and May 4-5 and June 9-10-11 -- would make things very interesting once again in the AL East, especially since the two teams will meet again, in New York, on September 25-26-27.

Tonight's game begins a 10-game homestand at Fenway Park. Twenty of the Red Sox's next 25 games are against the Yankees, White Sox, Rays and Angels. It is essential that they continue the strong pitching and hitting performances they showed in Toronto. The Yankees -- 25-9 since the All-Star break, including a four-game sweep of the Sox on August 6-7-8-9 -- have not won a game at Fenway Park since September 28, 2008.

Horseface started against the Red Sox on August 9 in New York, pitching seven scoreless innings and allowing only five hits; he took the loss back on April 26. Penny turned in a 6-6-0-1-5 line against New York on June 11.

Globe:Pedroia made it just in the nick of time - try by 20 minutes - to see the birth of his first child, Dylan, on Tuesday.And by yesterday, Pedroia was already boasting that his son was a "badass," according to Francona. ...After being put on a 40-person plane to Boston - where he found Sox fans surprised at his presence and eager to talk baseball - Pedroia jumped in a cab to get to the hospital."The cab driver wanted to talk about baseball and I’m like, 'Dude, I will give you $100 to get me to Mass. General as fast as possible,'" Pedroia said. "So we probably were driving a little bit past the speed limit, but I think everyone understands."

History shows that Japanese pitchers tend to offer diminishing returns as the league becomes familiar with their stuff and their often-funky deliveries. Indeed, Hideki Okajima's ERA has shot up over his three seasons in Boston's 'pen from 2.22 in 2007 to 2.82 this year. That is to say that the lefty changeup artist is one of the most reliable eighth-inning setup men in the game. His rate stats over his first three seasons have shown very little variation and he ranks third among non-closers in WXRL this year. Since May 1, he's posted a 2.18 ERA with 19 holds.

Of COURSE it's an uphill battle for the division, because we're in 2nd place. But Red Sox fans of all people should know that "X has never happened before" is merely a statement of fact, not an accurate prediction of the future. Something Yankees fans should know, too, eh?

"ESPN.com's Jayson Stark reported Thursday the Mets would likely have to eat some of Wagner's salary in order to recieve [sic] a viable prospect in return for the reliever."

We're taking the payroll off their hands when they have no chance of making the post season. By taking some of it back, they can get a decent prospect off us, but not a high-level one. We have more than enough decent prospects without having to give up anyone we'd later regret.

'Course you never know who might break out. But we're not going to cause ourselves any real pain in this deal.

Shit, I gotta head out for dinner now with friends. Ugh, poorly planned on my part. I should be back in by 9:30 - so just in time for the 3rd, if this goes according to typical sox/yanks (and penny) fashion...

I'm all for DFAing Penny if you have a better option, but I don't see who that is right now. We've already got Tazawa in the rotation and he's not ready for prime time yet. Wakefield doesn't seem like he's going to be ready to rejoin the rotation anytime soon, and God knows when Matsuzaka will be back. In short, I don't see any other option besides throwing Penny back out there again in five days.

Aardsma only sucked at the end of last season, and that's because he never fully recovered from whatever injury he had right after the ASB. Through July 18th of last year he had a 2.75 ERA in 39 and a third IP, with only one homer allowed.

After that, he had a 17.36 ERA in 9 and a third innings with three home runs allowed.

In 2008, with the highest payroll in baseball, whoever it is in the box with Kay, your bunch of weasels, wasters and muppets fell out of contention in June, I believe. So what if you have the best record now.